"Let me go!"
Pinned to the ground beneath someone else's body, Gwen still felt humiliated and furious even though she knew her opponent was also female. She struggled desperately and gritted out the words.
Xi Nian, sitting atop her, found himself in a difficult position.
Gwen had attacked first. To keep her from hurting him or seeing his real face, he had been forced to defend himself.
But now that he had subdued her, he had no idea what to do next.
Let Spider-Woman go?
Leaving aside whether she would keep attacking, at such close range, the moment he released her, she would only have to turn her head to see his face clearly!
Xi Nian did not want to expose his true identity. All his current abilities came from his aunt, not talents he possessed himself. Perhaps he only had them temporarily tonight; by tomorrow, he might return to being an ordinary human with an ordinary physique.
But if he did not let her go, he could not stay deadlocked like this all night.
"Maybe I should just knock her out."
A flicker of hesitation crossed Xi Nian's eyes. He was worried he might accidentally use too much force.
Just as he was considering how to temporarily deprive Spider-Woman of her ability to move, her struggling body suddenly arched. She raised her only unrestrained right leg high, and her small foot in a custom green low-top shoe hooked around Xi Nian's neck like a hook.
"Huh?!"
His throat was tightly cinched by that nimble little foot, forcing Xi Nian's body to lean back.
Realizing Spider-Woman wanted to use this to escape his restraint, Xi Nian held his breath. His left hand continued gripping her left ankle, while his right hand tightened around their locked wrists, giving her no chance to break free.
Crack, crack, crack!
Their bones popped crisply like roasted beans.
Their bodies were nearly pressed together, one above and one below, as though they had entered a grueling tug-of-war of endurance!
Spider-Woman Gwen, pinned beneath him, had her arched body bent nearly into a crescent moon. Her slim, delicate waist looked as if it could snap at any moment. Sitting above her and pressed close to the Spider-suit, Xi Nian could feel with absolute clarity the astonishing flexibility and strength of the body beneath him.
"Let go with your foot!" Xi Nian desperately wanted to shout.
But Spider-Woman shouted before he could. "Let go of me already!"
She pulled back with all her strength using the foot hooked around Xi Nian's throat, her petite body twisting and struggling without pause.
"!!!" Xi Nian's eyes abruptly widened.
As Spider-Woman tugged her foot backward and continued struggling, his body kept shifting back as well. He had originally been sitting only on her back, but now Xi Nian's hard seat had become a soft seat—the highest-grade kind, at that.
Xi Nian froze. He was wearing a short skirt outfit right now!
Spider-Woman had no idea. Feeling Xi Nian's body stiffen, she assumed he was starting to lose strength and struggled even more fiercely.
The quality of a spider bodysuit was naturally beyond question, but for outdoor mobility and breathability, it was even thinner than an ordinary jacket or pair of jeans. It could not conceal the perfectly defined curve of her cleavage.
And with its wearer moving so violently...
This is bad.
Xi Nian inwardly cried out. He did not know whether this counted as enjoyment or torment, but the boiling blood in his body began rushing downward.
"What is that?"
Spider-Woman finally noticed that something was wrong. Some unknown object beneath the hem of his skirt was pressing against her through the leather-like layer of her Spider-suit.
Xi Nian abruptly released the left ankle he had been holding. He grabbed the remaining white webbing beside them, wrapped it around Spider-Woman's hands several times like rope, and also bound the little foot around his neck.
He completed it all in an instant.
Xi Nian sprang off Spider-Woman, pulled the Retro Longsword from the iron door where it had been nailed, and leaped toward the tall building across the street without looking back.
Perhaps he was lucky. Or perhaps tonight's string of encounters had given him some familiarity with extraordinary power.
This time, Xi Nian controlled the force of his jump perfectly. He crossed twenty meters through the air and landed precisely atop the water tower of the building opposite. After several running starts and leaps, his shield-bearing figure vanished into the increasingly snowy night over the city.
Ten seconds later.
"Damn bastard, I'll kill you!"
"Where are you? Come out!!"
After clearing away the webbing wrapped around her, the girl beneath the Spider-Man mask was flushed with shame and fury. Her black-and-white suit seemed to be on fire as she began swinging frantically back and forth between the skyscrapers.
Even from half a street away, Xi Nian could hear the girl's enraged shouts behind him.
"This really isn't my fault." Xi Nian gave a bitter smile, looked down at his noticeably bulging skirt, and hid in a corner on the rooftop of a building.
A while later, Spider-Woman swung past on webbing from a nearby building and sped away.
"This time, I can finally go home, right?"
With his skirt calm again, Xi Nian let out a breath and emerged from the building's shadows with his sword in hand.
He looked around.
Using several recognizable nearby buildings as landmarks, Xi Nian quickly confirmed that he was at the boundary between inner and outer Washington, more than ten kilometers from the downtown area where his home was.
Heaven knew how he had gotten here.
"Do I have to jump all the way back?" Xi Nian felt slightly helpless, but he had no other choice. Just as he prepared to head home, something unexpected happened!
Boom!
The building beneath Xi Nian suddenly shuddered.
"What was that?" Xi Nian initially thought it was his imagination, but the next second, the building beneath his feet shook distinctly again!
Xi Nian quickly reacted and looked toward the surrounding city buildings.
It was not just the building he stood on. The nearby high-rises were all shaking noticeably!
Was it an earthquake?
The thought had barely surfaced before Xi Nian dismissed it.
No!
His senses and awareness now surpassed human limits, allowing him to perceive things humans normally could not. The source of the tremors did not seem to be beneath the city's surface. It was coming purely from a specific location somewhere on the surrounding ground!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Every few seconds, or sometimes every second, the surrounding streets and buildings trembled faintly, as if a gigantic hammer were violently striking the ground!
"It's not far from here." Xi Nian murmured, standing atop the building as he gazed toward a point in the streets below.
As if confirming his extraordinary perception and judgment.
Rumble!!
Within Xi Nian's field of vision, a building two or three kilometers away suddenly collapsed with a thunderous roar!
The city's winter-night tranquility and peace were directly shattered by some unknown, terrifying thing!
And this was only the beginning.
Bang, bang, bang!!!
Boom, boom, boom—
Deafening gunfire and artillery blasts followed one after another, dense and unceasing, erupting around the collapsed building like thunder during a summer downpour!
Flames surged into the sky and rapidly spread in every direction, setting several bustling streets and the city sky ablaze.
"Roar—!"
From the urban battlefield that had instantly become a corner of purgatory came a hair-raising roar. That sound absolutely did not belong to any human or animal, and it directly overwhelmed the carpet bombardment of modern artillery shells!
"What is that?"
Xi Nian's eyes widened as he stared at the center of the distant flames and smoke, at the massive yellow-green shadow that flashed past. It was as though he had seen the true other side of this world!
Before you continue